Notes to Self

Just a mini entry. The garden's still in the in-between time, with not much to harvest right now. I'm kicking myself for not planting zucchini or cucumbers, and wanted to jot that down for when I'm referring to this year's blog entries at planting time next year. I did have reasons for not planting either of those  - mostly that I have limited space in my garden and zucchini and cukes take up a lot of real estate. Also, the  squash borers get my zucchini every year, and I thought maybe taking a year off would teach them to look elsewhere and save my crop next year. A girl can dream!

One more note-to-self. Next year plant some non-heirloom tomato varieties. I'm still having the problem where the majority of my tomato flowers dry up, fall off and don't become tomatoes. Some plants are worse than others. The Yellow Pear is going crazy (in a good way), and the Black Krim is producing well. But my Aker's West Virginia still doesn't have a single tomato. Grrrr. It was a good learning experience if nothing else. Next year I'll go with a majority of Big Beef, Jet Star and generic grape and cherry tomatoes, and will probably plant at least one Yellow Pear and Black Krim.

For now, here are some pics of my flowering green beans (mini beans are forming... could have first harvest next week!), and my small ground cherry, berry, tomatillo and pepper harvest from Saturday.

Baby Beans a Formin'!

Bean Bed

Jalapenos, Sweet Peppers and Tomatillos, Oh My! (and one yellow pear tomato)

Blueberries, Strawberries and Ground Cherries. I had ground cherry Greek yogurt that afteroon. Yummy!

In-Between Time

My garden's in sort of an in-between stage right now. The spring crops are about done, and the summer crops aren't ripe yet.

I harvested the garlic today, along with the last of the snow peas, a few strawberries, and a lone ground cherry.

I need to clear out the dregs of arugula (all flowering at this point) in the garlic bed, and crackly yellow pea plants in my two pea beds, and quickly figure out what to plant in those spots next. I'm thinking short season pumpkins in the pea beds. I'm not sure what to plant where the garlic was. Beets? Mini carrots? Or is there such a thing as a short season cucumber? Is it too early/hot to plant cabbage or broccoli for a fall harvest? I need to do some research, STAT.

My ever bearing strawberries are in a lull right now, but are flowering again, so it should be strawberry fiesta time again soon!

My warm weather crops are all getting bigger, but aren't quite mature yet.

Summer crop beds

The bush beans on the right are *just* about to flower. The ground cherries (front center) are going crazy. There are already hundreds of green ground cherries all over them, and more flowers coming.

Peeking in on the ground cherries

Tomatillos are doing well too.

My tomato and pepper plants finally have fruit! But nothing's ripe yet.

I'm also having the problem with my tomatoes that I seem to have every year. I have lots of flowers, but many of them just shrivel up and die before becoming fruit. I'm almost positive this is because it's been so insanely humid lately. Tomato flowers are self pollinating. In theory as long as there's a breeze or a bee to jiggle them around they should become tomatoes. When it's extremely humid though the pollen gets sticky and doesn't work its magic. A few days ago I started going out each morning to manually shake my tomato plants. Hoping that will help!

It takes about three weeks for garlic to dry out and cure before it's ready to eat and store. Within three weeks I  might just have ripe tomatoes, tomatillos  and peppers. I think I see salsa in my future!

Catch up!

Quick update! The kids finished up school for the year, my parents came to visit, and then it was the 4th of July - and um, I've kind of been neglecting my blog!


Here's the non-raised bed area of the garden as of 30 minutes ago:

For comparison's sake here's the same view taken on July 1st - just 4 days ago:

We're in the middle of a very humid heat-wave, and apparently the plants are loving it!

What else... I picked 3 1/2 pounds of snow peas last week! We're still eating our way through these. There are more peas to harvest, and they're blooming again.

I tasted my very first ripe ground cherry, and it was sooo yummy - kind of like pineapple. Sweet and mellow. Sam tried one and proclaimed that it tasted like "tropical fruit".

Sam helping out.

The reason they call them ground cherries is that the fruit isn't ripe until it's fallen off the plant and been "on the ground" (in a bowl is fine too) for a few days.  At this point the only ripe ground cherries I've harvested have been from the plant I ended up putting in a pot because I didn't have space for it in the garden. I plucked the flowers off all the other ground cherry seedlings to encourage root growth, so they're a little behind this guy fruit wise (but are *much* huger).

Fallen ground cherries.

As you can see, the cherries grow in little husks, like tomatillos. Inside there's what looks like an orangish/yellowish berry.

Not my pic, but I hope to have a harvest like this soon!

I read that each ground cherry plant can produce up to *300* fruits. so with any luck by the end of summer I'll have ground cherries coming out of my ears. Ground cherry preserves anyone? If you know me there's a good chance you'll get some for Christmas!

I'd also read that ground cherry plants can take over a garden. I'm on the verge of experiencing that.

Ground Cherries 7/1

Ground cherries today (and my feet!)

Looks like we should also have an awesome grape harvest this year - so big batches of Concord grape jam may also be in our future this fall! Here's hoping!

A glimpse of some grapes-to-be

I love gardening season - even if I don't have time to write much about it!